But this doesn’t mean you should take matters into your own hands if you find out where your phone went. As 18-year-old Jeremy Cook discovered, the thief could be an extremely violent man with a gun. Cook was shot to death as he tried to get his stolen smartphone back.

So what do you do when your phone goes walkies? Do you take a proactive approach or wait for law enforcement to do its thing? Let’s discuss.

First Things First… Breathe

When you discover your phone is gone, you are either going to be furious, upset, or both. That’s normal — after all, you’ve just been robbed. But that is also a very dangerous combination to be in. Because in that state, you’re not thinking clearly, and your judgment is skewed. Before you know it, you could be doing something you very much regret later.

One, confirm the device is actually in your home, and secondly, you can get the phone to make a loud sonar-style sound. Then you can follow the noise and hopefully find the phone. You can do this from another iDevice (if you have one), or from iCloud online.

Don’t be Tempted to Recover a Stolen iPhone Alone

Find My iPhone has a feature which presents you with a little car icon. If you press on that, it will give you exact driving and walking instructions on Apple MapsIs Apple Maps a Reliable Navigator Yet?Is Apple Maps a Reliable Navigator Yet?After replacing Google's navigation, Apple Maps endured a rocky start, heaps of criticism and some very funny jokes – but has all been forgiven?Read More, to the residence where the phone is currently located. This might tempt you into getting the phone back and roughing up the scoundrel who took it. But that would be a very bad idea. Look what happened to Jeremy Cook.

Another example is Los Angeles resident Sarah Maguire, who traced the iPhone (and her roommate’s iPhone which was also stolen by the same person), and she marched right up to the front door to get them back. And she did.

But that approach was sharply criticised by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who told New York Times :

“This is a new phenomenon — it’s not simply running after the person to grab the phone. It opens up the opportunity for people to take the law into their own hands, and they can get themselves into really deep water if they go to a location where they shouldn’t go”.

Go To The Police

The best thing to do is walk into your local police station, show them on an iDevice or iCloud online where your phone is, and ask for officers to go to the residence in question and get your phone. The police are best trained to deal with these situations in a safer manner than being a lone hero.

But before going to the police, make sure you use the locking feature in Find My iPhone. Marking it as lost — and locking the phone — will allow you to enter a phone number where you can be reached, and a personal message if a kind soul is honest enough to return it to you (or a more ominous message, as James chose to do).

If you don’t have a passcode on the phone already, then you will set one up here. The phone will remain locked and unusable until you enter your passcode and password to unlock it again. Act as quick as possible if you do find your device with Find My iPhone, as once the device has been turned off it is no longer traceable.

Can Police Actually Help?

That is impossible to answer definitively. Some police departments are busier than others. If you walked into the NYPD for example, you may get told that a missing phone is extremely low priority given the available resources. If your local police department doesn’t see much action then you may have more luck.

It can also depend on whether that particular police department is tech-savvy. If they’re not that tech savvy, then you should try and explain as best as possible the nature of the situation and how the phone won’t necessarily be traceable once the battery or data connection dies — they may be more likely to act if they know this.

If It Becomes Impossible To Get The Phone Back….

It may be that it eventually becomes impossible to get your phone back for various reasons. Perhaps the police decline to get involved? Perhaps the criminal has already sold it on? Perhaps you’ve searched high and low and still can’t find it? In these scenarios, it’s time to remotely wipe the phone.

Preemptive Measures You Can take

When getting an iPhone, there are some preemptive measures you can put in place in case your phone does get stolen sometime in the future. There’s nothing like being prepared.

Put On a Passcode

Imagine if your phone didn’t have a passcode and the thief started looking through your stuff. Just think for a moment what they would have access to. Your emails, your contacts, your Facebook conversations (perhaps revealing private information), Apple or Google Maps which has your address programmed in (leading the thief to come and try their luck again), photos, videos, a password manager with passwords to all your accounts …it’s enough to give me the chills.

So do yourself a huge favor and set up a passcode. Yes it’s a royal pain constantly logging in when you need to see your phone. But think of the alternative. Which one would you prefer? Head to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode to set it up, and turn Simple Passcode off if you’re really concerned.

Consider Disabling Lock Screen Notifications

So someone gets a hold of your phone, and even though the phone is locked, notifications are still coming up on the screen. SMS messages (which can be replied to, impersonating you) and email previews are two which instantly spring to mind. Do you want the thief being able to read those, despite the passcode? Consider switching it off then.

Turn On “Erase Data After 10 Failed Passcode Attempts”

This is a very handy feature to have on. By giving the person only 10 attempts to get the passcode right before the information explodes, it stops brute force attacks, and gives you peace of mind that your information is more or less secure.

Of course two things to bear in mind. First, make sure that you don’t get your own passcode wrong 10 times, and secondly…

The Moral Of The Story

But the moral of this story is this – and listen up good boys and girls. It is not worth getting killed over a phone. The phone can be replaced but you can’t. So don’t be tempted to be a superhero. Your iPhone doesn’t need a Dark Knight. It needs its owner alive and well to receive it back.

Have you had your iPhone stolen? If so, tell us your stories and whether or not you got your device back eventually.

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Peri

November 15, 2017 at 1:27 pm

I lost my iPod at school and i didnt set up Find My iPhone. Ive posted flyers around the school with a 50$ reward to whoever turns it in. I really need it back. Theres irreplaceable photos on there. :(

My daughter had her iPhone 6 pickpocketed in Barcelona when she was studying abroad in March of 2015. Professional and smooth on the escalator of the metro station. She didn't even see who took it. Just.Gone. 4 months later, she had returned to the USA. We received a phone call on the emergency number we had stored on the iphone account. A man in Pakistan wanted to try to arrange some way to sell the phone back to us or to pay us to release the lock. Of course we didn't trust him, so we didn't respond to his generous offer to sell us back our stolen phone.

Mark O'Neill is a freelance journalist and bibliophile, who has been getting stuff published since 1989. For 6 years, he was the Managing Editor of MakeUseOf. Now he writes, drinks too much tea, arm-wrestles with his dog, and writes some more. You can find him on Twitter and Facebook.